If you’re part of the problem you’re not part of the solution

You know something I don’t do anymore? I don’t pick on other women for their appearance, even their fashion sense (or non-sense), even to myself. This wasn’t a huge discipline to commit to, for me who-has-never-cared-much-about-looks, but it does still require some effort. Our culture insists on elevating appearance to the highest value at the same time as objectifying women and demonising fat (and otherwise transgressive) bodies. So, body hate, fat phobia, fashion policing and its close cousin slut shaming are all part of the day to day vernacular for most people.

And this really, really, is not okay.

A friend said to me recently that she felt one couldn’t currently be a serious fashionista and a serious feminist at the same time because the fashion industry is blatantly harmful to women.

Upon reflection, I agree. Sure, love and enjoy fashion (and fatshion!) design, aesthetics and pretty things! But don’t go believing that following and policing fashion rules (which include restrictions on body size, body hair, and gender presentation and come from sources who frequently erase, ignore, lampoon or fetishise people with disabilities, non-white people, homeless people and more) does anyone any favours. And that’s without even thinking about fashion as an industry: one which thrives on the exploitation of sweatshop workers, animals, and also models – for whom disordered eating is frequently a job requirement.

Now honestly, my issue isn’t with the casual enjoyment of fashion which is, after all, a real and influential thing in this world. I like to flick through the  magazines too, and I’m starting to think that paying more attention to fatshion might be fun. My issue is with articles like this one of many bazillions published daily, which use fashion as a cover for fat-hatred, slut-shaming and the policing of (usually women’s) bodies.

Daile Pepper of the WA Today calls jeggings “a crime against jeans. And leggings. And women.” Which is funny really, because whilst jeggings might be silly and they might even be seriously ugly, they’re no crime against women. They’re a clothing item. What is a crime against women? Writing a few hundred words of vitriol against women’s bodies and calling it a fashion piece. Apparently, there are “many women out there wearing leggings as pants who really, REALLY shouldn’t.” Shouldn’t, according to Pepper and the rest of the fashion police, because their bodies are not good enough. Too fat, in fact. Silly fat women, thinking that they have any kind of right to a fashion trend, not to mention the right to go out in public without being ridiculed for their appearance! Now, I’m only picking on this one article because it’s conveniently to hand. You know I wouldn’t have to look far to find another one.

Thankfully, I only have to look as far as definatalie.com to find a counter argument. Natalie urges against the recent trend of policing what counts as pants (since people like Lady GaGa and the advent of jeggings keep making us reconsider this question) because of its close links to fat hatred and slut-shaming. This need to control what is acceptable in fashion belies a deep-seated desire to control bodies and to viciously criticise those who don’t submit to being controlled.

And yet, some high-ranking officers  in the Fashion Police call themselves champions of positive body image. Take Mia Freedman, for example, whose extremely popular blog Mama Mia frequently features pieces on body image. Freedman gets quite cross at photo-shopping in magazines and advertising, and as a former magazine editor she has an insight into an industry which thrives on the objectification of bodies and the promotion of unattainable ideals. To her credit, she’s spoken out against this publicly and loudly. But what value do her words have, when her site also carries regular features like ‘Best/Worst Dressed‘, where commenters are encouraged to heap shame on celebrities for their fashion choices? Has she really moved on from the days of working for the type of magazines that would run a  ‘self esteem’ piece right next to a piece on cellulite creams?

Picking on the clothes instead of the bodies wearing them is not much more helpful to women. It’s still privileging appearance over action, it’s still implying that worth is in looks and that there is a right way to look. It’s still marginalising those whose bodies almost never make it onto red carpets. It’s definitely not feminist.

If we’re to really help stem the tide of low self-esteem and body hate which is fuelling the growth of eating disorders, depression and self-harm amongst the young people in our community, we need to change tack. Spreading the ‘positive body image’ message in the way that Mia Freedman, Jennifer Hawkins and now sports minister Kate Ellis have attempted to do is is worse than lip-service. We don’t need yet more noise about standards of beauty: we actually need to change the conversation.

There is nothing radical about telling girls and women to buy ‘flattering’ clothes and make-up to help them present their best side to the world no matter what their body type (implication being that the world is doing us a favour by accepting certain types of bodies). Obsessing over fashion teaches us that even though a variety of types of bodies may be okay, there’s a right and wrong way to adorn those bodies. And all this does is keep the talk conveniently adherent to a different kind of conformity: conformity to the notions that girls and women are simply ornamental, that their sexuality should be expressed only in certain ways, that their bodies can and should be controlled, that their beauty is a commodity.

I reject those notions, and I reject body-shaming dressed up as liberation.

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